When Joni Mitchell was a Black man

A singer-songwriter claims an unexpected identity

William and Myrtle Anderson wanted a son. A name was ready: ‘Robert John Anderson’. But they had a girl, and as she’d say, had “to make do with what they got.”

Born in 1947, she was named Roberta Joan. She was called ‘Joan’ and took using the performing name ‘Joni.’ Throughout her career, the lines of male and female were often blurred. As the scholar Stuart…